National education policy glaring concerns

New policy does not envisage a major shift in education resources
Islamabad, Sep 13: The New Education Policy has correctly focused on the core of the educational
malaise the country is suffering from: A discriminatory system with one system
for the elite and another for the masses; and a lack of resources for investment
in the education sector.

Making education compulsory for all at any level is
meaningless if that education is outdated and irrelevant to the modern world.
The education is also of little use if it does not provide a level playing field
in the job market. So it is good to see the government focusing on having one
education system for the public and private sectors. A total revision of the
curricula is also necessary but a fresh mindset is required to make truly
academic curricula, especially in the social sciences.

Unfortunately, the
new policy does not envisage a major shift in resources towards education, with
only a 7 percent budgetary allocation envisaged by 2015. This is totally
inadequate.

Even more glaring is the lack of focus on raising the standard and
emoluments for teachers so that this profession becomes one of choice rather
than a last resort occupation. A professional teaching cadre has to be
developed. Unless we establish the dignity of the teaching profession, no amount
of investment in brick and mortar will help us overcome the education
deficit.

A major cause for concern in the NEP is the bringing in of the
Interior Ministry into the realm of education. By placing madrassahs under the
Interior Ministry, we will further push them out of the educational mainstream.
This is an untenable posture and one is totally at a loss to understand why this
discriminatory treatment is being meted out to the madrassahs, which by and
large cater to the already marginalized segments of the population.

The correct
approach would have been to bring the madrassahs, like religious schools across
the world, into the mainstream of the educational system, with the religious
part of the examinations being conducted by the relevant religious boards. If we
are going to have one educational system for all, the religious schools must
also be brought into this ambit. Without this, we cannot rid ourselves of the
debilitating cost of an illiterate nation. The nation

First ever theme based policy as compared to all previous ones
Islamabad: Education Policy 2009 is the first ever theme based policy as compared to all
previous ones that were topic based, which is why one should expect a 180-degree
diversion in the new policy.

These views were expressed by Joint
Education Advisor (JEA) Ministry of Education TM Qureshi said on
Saturday.

Commenting on as to what prompted the change in the
vision of Education Policy 2009 when the supporting arguments are the same, he
said the policy document is not the work of a single person but a team that
includes education ministers of the four provinces, three education secretaries,
two joint education advisors and one deputy education advisor.

"Everyone
of them has included or excluded some things from the document in order to make
it acceptable to all relevant quarters," he said adding that the change in the
vision statement is a unanimous decision and holds significance.

Qureshi
said they have attached 20 aims and objectives to the vision statement, further
elaborating it. "There have been numerous major and minor changes in the policy
document within the span of one year in order to make it a largely acceptable
document but everyone is looking for things that have not been changed," he
said.

He said the task of the federal government is to provide a
document, which could be easily implemented by the provinces in accordance to
their circumstances and socio-political structure. "Education is a provincial
matter and provinces are responsible for the implementation of the policy
document, while the federal government is to just give a framework and vision in
the form of policy," he said.

According to the new policy document, the
vision adopted by the Ministry of Education goes like, "Our education system
must provide quality education to our children and youth to enable them to
realise their individual potential and contribute to development of society and
nation, creating a sense of Pakistani nationhood, the concepts of tolerance,
social justice, democracy, their regional and local culture and history based on
the basic ideology enunciated in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan."

The new vision statement has an obvious difference from the
previous one, which stated, "Education is a categorical imperative for
individual, social and national development that should enable all individuals
to reach their maximum human potential. The system should produce responsible,
enlightened citizens to integrate Pakistan in the global framework of human
centred economic development."

However, the supporting arguments, stated
in the document of the new and the previous policy, are almost same, stating
that the reaffirmation of the educational vision requires a change of mindset
that would permit the development of goals, policies and programmes in support
of the vision. The Planning Commission's 'Vision 2030' also argues for such
change of the mindset, which commits to a new set of societal goals.

Both
policy visions are based on research, termed as 'new research' in the policy
document of 2005 and also in that of 2009. The new document says that the new
research highlights the possibilities of both a vicious and a virtuous circle,
operating from the equity of educational opportunities to the equity of income
distribution, and from social cohesion to economic growth.

It further
states that an affirmation of commitment to Pakistan's egalitarian education
vision in the service of all citizens and as a driver of economic and social
development can help to produce a virtuous circle of high levels of human and
social capital leading to equitable economic growth and social advancement. The
education sector policies have to be reoriented if they are not to fall in the
vicious circle trap.

The 20 aims and objectives the new vision statement
is attached with that were not a feature of the previous policies include
revitalising the existing education system with a view to cater to the social,
political and spiritual needs of individuals and society; and playing a
fundamental role in the preservation of the ideals, which lead to the creation
of Pakistan and strengthen the concept of the basic ideology within the Islamic
ethos enshrined in the 1973 Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Further objectives are to create a sense of unity and nationhood and promote the
desire to create a welfare state for the people of Pakistan; promote national
cohesion by respecting each others' faith and religion and cultural and ethnic
diversity; enable Pakistan to fulfil its commitments to achieve the Dakar
Framework of Action EFA Goals and Millennium Development Goals relating to
education; widen access to education for all; and improve the quality of
education, particularly in its dimension of being relevant to the needs of the
economy.

BSc (Hons) result distinction
Islamabad: The students of University College of Islamabad (UCI) have excelled
in the B.Sc. (Hons) examination held under University of London External System,
says a press release issued here on Saturday.

Five students of BSc
(Hons) got First Class degrees. The examination were held in May-June 2009 in
the fields of Accounts, Business, Economics, Economics and Management,
Information System Management, and LLB.

Khadija Khan, student of BSc
Accounting and Finance, was the leading student, she got 10 distinctions overall
and has scored the 4th position in the University of London External System
worldwide. Similarly, Syed Ali Aman Zaidi, Komal Ghani, Maha Ahmed and Anam A.
Khan also got first Class (Hons). University College of Islamabad students
obtained 38 distinction &amp; 55 merits on overall basis. The news